The $400,000 Retail Job Without a College Degree

Walmart is giving bigger bonuses and adding stock awards to their annual pay packages, pushing the total compensation for the best ones to more than $400,000 a year.

The retail giant has thousands of store managers who act as midlevel executives. Each can often oversee a store with 350 workers and $100 million in annual revenue. Many start as clerks and climb the ranks without college degrees.

Store managers will now be able to earn up to $20,000 in annual stock grants and an up-to-200% bonus each year. The average base salary for a Walmart store manager is around $128,000.

That means a successful manager of a large Walmart store can earn up to $404,000 a year in total compensation. A Walmart spokeswoman declined to share how many managers generally receive their full bonus each year.

The job has become more complex in recent years, said John Furner, Walmart U.S. chief executive. Store managers are now evaluated on and responsible for e-commerce orders sourced from their stores, said Furner, who once worked as a Walmart store manager.

For store managers, the addition of an automatic stock grant, “makes it easier for them to think and act like owners because they are,” said Furner.

Walmart has worried about its pipeline of store managers. In 2022 it started a program to recruit and train college graduates for the job to help build its pool of possible candidates.

Store manager turnover has stabilized over the past year compared with earlier in the pandemic, said Furner. “We are keeping store managers in their location a bit longer,” he said.

Earlier this month, Walmart raised the average store manager pay to $128,000 from $117,000 and increased the possible bonus one could earn to 200%, up from 150%.

The automatic stock grants are highest for managers who run supercenters, the large format Walmart stores that sell everything from food to vacuums. Those who run smaller format stores earn less.